Climate: Conflict & Cooperation
'The Earth is, like our own skin, fated to carry the scars of ancient wounds.' - Fernand Braudel
Climate change has come to dominate global discourse. It has moved millions of activists across the globe to take to the streets and compelled governments to reshape their policy agendas.
However, in the realms of defence and security, initiatives to examine the impacts of climate change are lagging behind. The Climate: Cooperation & Conflict project aims to fill this gap by studying the multifaceted consequences posed by shifts in the Earth's climate.
As the world order shifts towards multipolarity and the Polar ice caps continue to melt, the Arctic could become an increasingly important geostrategic space.
Environmental and demographic shifts will make coastal cities more complicated areas of operation; militaries will have to adapt to these changes or risk being overwhelmed.
This article assesses why global environmental governance is flawed, by focusing on voluntary compliance to agreements with limited enforcement, market-based solutions, and green growth initiatives. The article then explores whether the overarching capitalist model is the root cause of these flawed attempts at governance.
Nuclear will likely play a larger role in a world looking to wean itself off fossil fuels, but the U.S and Europe might not be positioned to capitalise on this development.
The election of Joe Biden as the 46th president of the United States will spark new hope for the Paris Agreement, but there are still a lot of unanswered questions about the agreement.
International climate agreements have always been hard to negotiate and even harder to implement, but increasing anarchy in the internal system will likely make them impossible in the future.